LPR Camera Tuning - Supplemental IR

n3wb

I am trying to get a Dahua IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E dialed in for license plate capture (maybe add alpr if I can get it working well enough) and would appreciate input. I know my horizontal angle is not great but at this point my only option is to mount on the house (no place closer to street to mount/hide a camera. Below is roughly where I am at now I think I am a little closer (by 5 or 10 feet) than the estimated 147 feet but not positive. I originally had it slightly further down the street but seemed like I was stretching the distance too much so I moved closer to the house(but angle got a little worse).

Day time capture has been generally pretty good. This is at 1160 of 1200 zoom.

Have not been able to get night capture yet. This is what I got last night (any recommended adjustments appreciated):
1/2000
3DNR off
Iris 40
Gain 10-35
Sharpness 60
Contrast 70
IR Manual - 100% distant 40% close
HLC 65

Based on a previous suggestion from @bigredfish, I think I may need to add supplemental IR. I was looking at these options (any thoughts are appreciated):

For Aesthetic reasons would prefer not to mount the IR illuminator next to the camera. I would probably lean toward location A below which is about 18-20 feet off ground - but is making the IR angle even more off the horizontal angle worse? If so, location B would be closer to 90 degrees with the plate but would be further from the plate. Any suggestions appreciated.

Attachments

Known around here

I have the Tendelux working at 120 ok, but wish I had more. Go big as possible

I’d go with A

There are IR units that have a more focused beam which I’d like to try but the ones I’ve seen are expensive. The adjustable IR cannon covered here on the forum seems interesting but have not tried it myself

n3wb

Is there any advantage/disadvantage to IR illuminators using less but more intense LEDs (tendelux with 18 LEDs) vs array with many more of the small LEDs (CM vision with 198 LEDs). I do see that that the CM versions are showing narrower beam angles vs the tendelux.

Getting comfortable

Additional IR would certainly be desirable at that distance. I use a Bosch UFLED20-8BD AEGIS with a 20 degree beam at 120 feet which works great. They were being sold at a heavy discounted before they were discontinued. Scene Electronics have various models available with 15 degree beams. When ordering from them I have used "AliExpress Premium Shipping" which ended up using DHL for the last part of the shipping. Not as fast as using DHL all the way, but significantly cheaper.

As for your settings you can try increasing the aperture opening by bumping the 'Iris' setting and decrease shutter speed to 1/1000th so see if that is acceptable for your observed speed and angle.

n3wb

Thanks @cb8 . A IR illuminator is on the way. Hopefully that gets this working at night. I adjusted to 1/1000 and Iris to 55. Not seeing much difference - pretty much as the pictures already posted.

I started running the sunrise sunset utility Friday night.
Cam was out of focus Sat AM - I hit simulate sunrise and the cam went right in to focus indicating that the utility seems to be doing what it is supposed to - not sure why it didn't work automatically - I thought maybe it wasn't quite light enough out- so I went from 45 min offset to 1 hr
It worked shifting to night but then Sun AM it was still black and white, and out of focus.
It worked switching to night last night.
At some point I remembered the directions saying if you make changes to stop and restart the script so I did this.
It was in color and focused when I checked this AM. So maybe... that part is on the right track.

Known around here

After having tried about a half dozen different IR illuminators I pretty much ignore the beam angle spec. None of the illuminators I tried have a sharp cutoff on the sides, so without some measurement standard, the beam angle is more a matter of opinion. I prefer the illuminators with the least-bright hotspot, and for better edge-to-edge lighting use 2 of them with the hotspots distributed. It all depends on your camera's view angle of course. I have not tried any of the Scene Electronics illuminators, which cost more than I spent and are higher power. Perhaps they have a more honest beam width spec.

Caveats: it's not IP66 rated for weather resistance. It has a two-axis mount, plan to adapt. You may find its ambient-light sensor prevents it from activating until later in the day than you want (obstruct the sensor enough to overcome that).

For Aesthetic reasons would prefer not to mount the IR illuminator next to the camera. I would probably lean toward location A below which is about 18-20 feet off ground - but is making the IR angle even more off the horizontal angle worse? If so, location B would be closer to 90 degrees with the plate but would be further from the plate. Any suggestions appreciated.

Young grasshopper

I ended up getting the Axton MegaPixel AT-11E-S (PN#AT-11E-S.11ES382010)
20 x 10 Degrees. Range is 360' and I am using it at 120' and it is like shining a flood light down the street. The range on this is actually what they spec vs. the $30 JC Infrared that barely lights up 80ft (supposed to be 114 -132) and no where near the 90 degrees.

At $273 the Axton is not cheap (B&H Photo) but lifetime warranty with advanced replacement and it actually meets the stated specs. Going to be replacing my JC Infrared with 2 more of these Axton at wider angles.

Here is a video from a central camera looking at the Axton Beam of Light from the side while I am adjusting it further down the street. You can see it looks like a floodlight as it is moved further down the street.
Videos of night capture of license plates
The plate capture looks good on mp4 but not so great when converted by Youtube.